My arms keep falling asleep at night...

DarlingNIkki1028

So I'm not sure if this is normal or something to be worried about, but Google isn't telling me much, so I hope you girls might have something for me.

For the last week or so, I keep waking up in the middle of the night and one of or both my arms are numb from the shoulder to my hands. It goes away quickly, as soon as I shake them a little.  I can't tell if it's because I'm sleeping on the arm that falls asleep or what (I toss and turn a lot). I've been trying to sleep with a pillow between my knees to keep things more aligned, and last night I snagged a firmer pillow from the guest bed, and it was much better. So I'm wondering if maybe it has to do with not sleeping in the right positions or the right pillows(my back has been bothering me for awhile, and my neck is normally pretty sore in the morning after I wake up), I just need to buy a pregnancy pillow and be done with it.

Is this common? Or should I call my doctor? And does anyone have a good pregnancy pillow to recommend?

nanabanana06

My arms fall asleep a lot when I'm not pregnant. Your probably cutting off blood flow in the arm you sleep on, or if it's the other arm adjust the angle to provide better flow. It sucks, but it just happens.

weddedwife

This happens to me a lot, especially in late pg. doesn't seem to matter whether I'm on my side or back. It's pretty common.

Junebug060609

Lurker chiming in since it's slow...

Look up pregnancy induced carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve compression.

I had both in third tri. Fun times.

lisaNDmike08

This got worse and worse for me as my last pregnancy went on and it seems to have started already in this pregnancy.  So annoying.

zombiemommy

This happened to me throughout the entire second trimester, and sometimes I also had pain and numbness in my hands while I was awake. My guess was that it was pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome. It doesn't happen to me as much now, but I've read that some women have it their whole pregnancy and some even wear braces to reduce the pain. Thankfully, like all the other odd pregnancy stuff, it disappears after delivery.

DarlingNIkki1028

Thanks everyone for your input.  I had seen carpal tunnel come up a little bit when I Googled this, but it seemed like it's way more common later on in pregnancy. It does kind of sound like this is what I'm experiencing, but I'm only 10 weeks.  Has anyone else ever experienced this so early? And for those that did suffer from this (or are currently suffering from it), did you find any ways to relieve it.  I just know sleeping is only going to get harder and harder the more my belly grows! I do plan to buy a pregnancy pillow next week, hopefully that'll at least help me get in a good sleeping position.

tetiananina

I have that happen to me know. My guess is the way your sleeping and how blood is being able to flow. Since it goes away pretty quickly my guess is it's nothing serious but if you have concerns still I would reach out to your Dr.

TMWarren85

This happened with DD, and again this time around, pretty much since I got through the 1st trimester. When I sleep on my side my arm get either wedged up under me, or above my head and the pressure my body weight puts on the arms restricts the blood flow. When my sister was in the hospital with early contractions I was talking about it and her nurse was in the room and said it's extremely common. Your body wakes you up in time to move and get the blood flowing back in... just another thing to add to the list of reasons we don't get a full nights sleep

NKathleen

Thanks so much for the answers. I'll still call the on-call nurse in the morning just to confirm, but this has been happening for me all week and I just woke up from it happening tonight and got so worried I had to google and make sure this is something normal (I'm 14 weeks along with our first).

dragonfly1809

I've never experienced this.., but I would suggest both some prenatal yoga and acupuncture. Acupuncture can help with the oddest of things gently. Worth a try